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On the surface, the only bad thing that is going to happen is his deportation from the USA. The only thing to reflect on is that there are enough scumbags walking around the island of Ireland who have got away with murder as well due to the lack of evidence that would stand up in court - and some of them are doubtless elected representatives North and South of the border...

Genuine question. Why could he not have been handed over to the international court in the Hague. Give them whatever evidence there is against him?

The Hague has no legal role in the matter.

What evidence? Any defense lawyer worth his salt would get the case thrown out because apart from hearsay, no physical / forensic evidence exists that can put Mr. Bazi (a) at the scene of the killing of the two soldiers (might not even be at the place where the bodies were found.) (b) Can prove Mr. Bazi pulled the trigger or gave orders to pull the trigger.

BEIRUT: The main suspect in the 1980 killings of two United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon denied his involvement in the murders Wednesday before Beirutís Military Tribunal.

Lebanese national Mahmoud Bazzi, 72, is on trial for allegedly kidnapping and murdering two Irish peacekeepers, Thomas Barrett and Derek Smallhorne, on April 18, 1980 in the Bint Jbeil district village of Tiri.

He was arrested upon his arrival to Beirut after the United States deported him to Lebanon in January 2015. It was discovered he had entered the United States on a fake passport in 1994.

When asked if he had any statement to make at the beginning of the hearing, Bazzi told the court he wasnít involved in the killings.

ďI swear to God I havenít done anything or killed anyone, Iím too much of a religious man,Ē he told Military Prosecutor Khalil Ibrahim.

Bazzi is also accused of working for the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-backed mostly-Christian militia that was dissolved in 2000 when Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon.

He has been accused of killing the two soldiers after pulling them from their patrol in south Lebanon to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of UNIFIL troops 10 days earlier.

A third Irish soldier, John OíMahony, was wounded during the 1980 incident. He returned to Lebanon last November to provide testimony in the case.

"I have no relationship with the Israelis and I was never an official in the SLA. I won't deny that I've used a fake passport to get into the U.S. via Israel, but it was simply to follow my wife and children after my visa application got rejected," Bazzi told the court Wednesday.

"At the time, everyone living in south Lebanon used to travel [outside the country] via Israel," he added.

Sobhi Bazzi, a relative from the suspect's village, told the court that he knew Mahmoud was an SLA officer, but denied knowing who was behind the killings.

"Bazzi was an inhabitant of my village, he is married to four or five women, and he used to be a security official for the SLA," the witness told the military prosecutor when asked what he knew about the defendant.

When asked if Bazzi killed the peacekeepers to avenge his brother's death, he responded: "All of I've seen and known is from other people. It might have been Mahmoud [who killed the peacekeepers], or someone else..."

"I once saw him firing two shots in the air when Irish peacekeepers were passing by our village in a convoy, but I was never told that he later kidnapped or killed them. Mahmoud Bazzi has never done anything in his life," he added.

The trial, which began on June 2015, was adjourned to Nov. 9 following the public prosecutor's request to gather more evidence in the case.

Sorry, but how did he kidnap these guys? If they were part of a patrol or VCP?

They were on neither.They were on an admin run to collect water.Lightly armed.

Contrast that with patrol the Royal Irish lost to the West Side boys in Sierra Leone.And they were loaded for bear!!

Plenty of books written on both incidents.Might be worth reading them.

Infantry Corps - An L√°mh Comhrac

"Let us be clear about three facts:First of all.All battles and all wars are won in the end by the Infantryman.Secondly the Infantryman bears the brunt of the fighting,his casualties are heavier and he suffers greater extremes of fatigue and discomfort than the other arms.Thirdly,the art of the Infantryman is less stereotyped and harder to acquire than that of any other arm".
-- Field Marshall Earl Wavell.1948